華府書友會九月份演講

司馬格先生主講「音樂與圍棋的交融」

《華府書友會新聞稿- 9/5/2012》

琴、棋、書、畫自古就是中華文化的〝四藝〞，書畫同源，無庸置疑，琴棋竟能交融，相映成趣、相得益彰，令人好奇！

職業音樂家司馬格(Haskell Small)先生，業餘熱愛圍棋。他有音樂家的高雅氣質、棋手的 氣定神閒，悠遊於有聲無形的音樂世界與有形無聲的圍棋競技中，1987年，他成功地為某一棋譜[註一]譜寫了一曲鋼琴合奏的曲目，該年夏天並在第三屆美國圍棋大會上，舉行了這部棋曲“棋弈”(A Game of Go)的首映。為棋譜譜上音符樂章，司馬格可能是世上第一 人，樂譜棋譜，琴棋和鳴，令人驚其創意、拍案叫絕！

華府書友會九月份的演講，很榮幸地請到司馬格先生暢談「音樂與圍棋的交融 (Music and Go: Relating Two Art Forms)」，講述內容包含音樂與圍棋的共同特點、圍棋簡介及規 則、棋譜選取與概論、詳述譜曲過程、棋曲[註二] 的播放表演等等。

講題：「音樂與圍棋的交融」

講者：司馬格先生

時間：2012年9月15日(星期六)下午1:30至4:00

地點：Twinbrook Library (202 Meadow Hall Drive, Rockville, MD 20851)

聯络：金大俠(chin8673@yahoo.com，703.291.4201)或李海崙(wclsweb@gmail.com) ，(本次講座是以英文演講，現場會有中文翻譯)

講者簡歷：作為一位職業鋼琴家，司馬格常受邀在卡內基音樂廳、肯尼迪中心、及美國斯波萊托藝術節上表演。司馬格也曾巡廻於歐洲各國首都、南美洲各國、日本和中國，表演小型鋼琴演奏，取得巨大成功，他被英國的音樂時代譽為“令人目眩的天才琴藝”。他曾在Johann Sebastian Bach國際鋼琴比賽中進入半決賽，一生在鋼琴演奏及比賽上獲獎無數 ，PBS曾為他製作特別節目“鋼琴的慶典”(A Celebration of the Piano)，廣播全美。

作為一位成功的作曲家，他作曲無數又多元，1999年，他是Marin Ballet Dance Score大賽的獲勝者。從2000年至2003年，他是Mount Vernon Orchestra的駐地作曲家， 在此期間，他創作3件新的管弦樂作品。他也錄製許多CD，其中的Federico Mompou's Musica Callada，是MSR的經典，並被華盛頓郵報標題為“一個金色的沉默(A Golden Silence)”。司馬格畢業於舊金山音樂學院和卡內基梅隆大學，他目前是華盛頓音樂學院鋼琴系系主任。

司馬格圍棋棋齡約30年，對圍棋患有重癮，棋力已達業餘三段，偶爾在各項圍棋賽事中獲獎。1985年他籌組了在馬利蘭州威斯敏斯特市(Westminster)所舉行的第一屆美國圍棋大會，目前每週五晚上在貝塞斯達市(Bethesda)主持大華府圍棋社(The Greater Washington Go Club)，持續為美國圍棋的推廣奉獻熱誠與心力。

每月第三個星期六下午固定舉行一次藝文聚會的華府書友會，其宗旨是：以藝靜心、以文會友，一月一次的書友藝文聚會，為華府友好提供知識的、文化的、藝術的、文學的心靈盛宴。華府書友會「書卷頻開饗心靈，友朋偶聚享藝文。」目前的執行團隊是會長(或正業不務)：金大俠、副會長(或業務)：李海崙、秘書長(或雜務)：李成蕊、會藉長(或總務)：LV、財務長(或財務)：黄秉驥、顧問：張純瑛、洪越碧；在老幹新枝的團隊組合下，期能為華府的舊雨新知提供耳目一新的心靈滌濾、精神提升，更祈盼會員、會友、同好們共襄盛會，隨時提供建言！華府書友會會費每年25元、永久會員費150元，參與每月演講的非會員酌收五元以貼補場地租金、精美點心等，書友會網址：www.freewebs.com/wcls

[註一] ：司馬格所選取的棋譜是日本大田雄三(Ota Yuzo)和本因坊秀策(Honinbo Shusaku) 在1853年Sanjubango比賽的第六局。此局，是因為它代表著領土(實地)與模樣(勢力)的對抗競爭、勢均力敵，一個持續的競相捕捉、吃子追殺，以及不少令人驚心動魄的劫爭，戰火紛紛、戰局撲朔迷離，最終結果竟是‧‧‧和棋(即空地相同)。

[註二] ：〝你吐吧〞上已有這部棋曲“棋弈”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Ij-xhr_w0&list=UUbLpMleUmkYah8Z9C-1nJWg&index=2&feature=plcp

HASKELL SMALL
Pianist and Composer

Hailed by England’s Musical Times for his “dazzlingly prodigious technique”, pianist Haskell Small has concertized with great success in major European capitals, South America, Japan and China, and has been enthusiastically received by American audiences in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Spoleto Festival USA. The top semifinalist in the Johann Sebastian Bach International Piano Competition, Mr. Small has received numerous awards and has been featured in the nationally broadcast PBS special, “A Celebration of the Piano.”

Following in the tradition of 18th- and 19th-century pianist/composers, Haskell Small is also an accomplished composer, who often performs his own works. He has received commissions from such organizations as the Washington Ballet and the Paul Hill Chorale, and he was the winner of the 1999 Marin Ballet Dance Score Competition. From 2000 to 2003, he was composer-in-residence with the Mount Vernon Orchestra, during which time he produced three new orchestral works, including Fantasy of the Red-Eyed Creature, a collaboration with third-grade students who created the piece’s story. In 2005, Small completed Renoir’s Feast, a commission by the Phillips Collection to celebrate the return of their beloved painting, Luncheon of the Boating Party. It has subsequently been published by PeerMusic. And in 2007, the noted pianist Soheil Nasseri commissioned Small to write Lullaby of War, a setting of six war poems, which has since been performed in New York, Washington, several cities in Germany and Poland, and was released last year on Naxos Records.

Small has recorded a number of CDs, among them Federico Mompou's Musica Callada, for MSR Classics (headlined “A Golden Silence” by the Washington Post), a Gershwin disc for Centaur, a Children’s CD with narrator Robert Aubry Davis for Ongaku, and a disk of his smaller chamber works and Bach’s Goldberg Variations, both for 4Tay. He is currently preparing a recording of the Bach Partitas and also a new disc of his (Small’s) piano solo music.

In recent seasons, he has played recitals in Japan, Paris and London and participated in the 2007 Festival of American Music in Poland and an American Music Festival in Iceland (2010), as well as premiered his new work The Rothko Room: Journeys in Silence last year at the Phillips Collection. Also this past year, as a recipient of a CuDC grant, Small participated in an “artistic blind date”, experimenting with improvisations in four performances at the Source Festival in downtown Washington, D.C.

In the next few years, Haskell Small will be furthering his fascination with music that is primarily quiet, spacious and of a mystical nature with a series of concerts in a number of cities that will feature solo and chamber works by himself and other composers. Performances have already been set in Washington, New York, San Francisco and at Houston's Rothko Chapel. As a sample of Small's playing in this milieu, click here to see his video on YouTube, which has already received over 40,000 viewings, of Arvo Pärt’s sublime Für Alina.

Haskell Small received his musical training at the San Francisco Conservatory and Carnegie-Mellon University, and has studied piano with Leon Fleisher, William Masselos, Harry Franklin, and Jeanne Behrend, and composition with Roland Leich and Vincent Persichetti. Currently he is the Piano Department Chair of the Washington Conservatory of Music.